Jewelry & Luxury Accessory Designer, Fashion, Traveler, Writer

Main menu

Post navigation

You May Not Know This: Zoos and Aquariums Are NOT Regulated as You Think They Are

This is why you should boycott zoos! Speak up to save an animal in crises, they only have YOUR voice.

Mr. Samouka Kane, Director of the Abidjan Zoo, is responsible for these animals. More than a quarter of the animals died of starvation.

Since I was a young girl I didn’t like zoos because I could see and feel the suffering of the animals living on cement instead of their natural habitat and caged in isolation. I particularly remember an elephant locked in a small cement block by itself and looked at me with eyes filled with sadness and pain.

Earning a degree in biology reinforced my intuition as a child and now that I’m an adult, I’ve decided to bring more awareness towards giving the helpless animals a better life and hopefully the freedom they deserve.

If you are contacting PETA to report that an animal is in danger, please submit our Report Cruelty to Animals form. Link to Form

If the animal is in imminent danger, please contact your local police department immediately. If your local police department is unresponsive, call PETA immediately—day or night—at 757-622-7382, option 2.

PETA / ISSUES / ANIMALS USED FOR ENTERTAINMENT Link to Help Zoos and Other Captive-Animal Displays

HERE’S WHY THE USDA DOES NOT HELP THE ANIMALS. READ HER STORY. Annette the elephant is still enduring years of suffering after the USDA fines owner.

Annette has been exploited by Frank Murray for years. The notorious animal abuser sank to a new low this past November, scrawling Donald Trump’s last name directly onto Annette’s skin at a rally.

For decades, Frank Murray exploited elephants Topsy and Annette for circus performances and rides. Topsy died in 2014, leaving Annette all alone with the traveling side show, carted from state to state and forced to give rides at events like the Maryland Renaissance Festival.

In the wild, female elephants like Annette spend their entire lives with their family. Herdmates travel for miles each day together, rooting up trees, searching for food, and cooling off with dust baths. Annette and other captive elephants, however, live like prisoners. When they aren’t being loaded up with oblivious fairgoers, performing elephants are often stuck in cramped trucks, shackled in barns, or forced to do tricks, with each wrong move earning them a strike from a bullhook.

Annette deserves a new lease on life. At an accredited sanctuary, she could join a herd and learn what it feels like to have a family again. Please join us in urging the Bay Area Renaissance Festival and the Maryland Renaissance Festival to stop prolonging Annette’s suffering by refusing to host Frank Murray ever again.

CAPTIVE TIGER AND RETIRED ELEPHANTS FROM RINGLING BROS. CIRCUS USED FOR BLOOD SAMPLES PHOTOS TAKEN IN THE USA

Animals in zoos, pseudo-sanctuaries, traveling shows, and roadside displays are forced to spend their lives behind bars just to entertain the public.

Living conditions are often dismal, with animals confined to tiny, filthy, barren enclosures. But even the best artificial environments can’t come close to matching the space, diversity, and freedom that animals want and need. This deprivation—combined with relentless boredom, loneliness, and sometimes even abuse from the people who are supposed to be caring for them—causes many captive animals to lose their minds. Animals with this condition, called “zoochosis,” often rock, sway, or pace endlessly, and some even resort to hurting themselves by chewing on their own fingers or limbs or pulling out their fur or feathers.

Zoochosis is so rampant that some zoos even administer antidepressants and antipsychotics to try to curb the abnormal behavior.

Scam Shelters

The number of roadside zoos that have tacked on the word “sanctuary” or “rescue” to their names has skyrocketed in recent years. Kind people are naturally drawn to places that claim to rescue animals and offer them sanctuary, but many of these outfits are nothing more than breeders, dealers, and exhibitors exploiting the public’s goodwill and generosity.

The fundamental purpose of any legitimate animal sanctuary is to provide animals with safe, comfortable living conditions that give them as natural an existence as captivity allows. No legitimate animal sanctuary breeds or sells animals. No reputable exotic-animal sanctuary allows any kind of “hands-on” interaction, and that includes taking photos with animals or taking them out on the road for public display.

Drive-Through Safaris

While drive-through safaris or wildlife parks may seem like a better alternative, many of these facilities breed animals continuously, because baby animals attract customers. But babies grow up quickly, and older, unwanted animals may be warehoused like inventory or quietly shipped out. Since paper trails are notoriously inaccurate and difficult to follow, it’s nearly impossible to know how many “surplus” animals end up at auctions, in slaughterhouses, or on hunting ranches.

Traveling and Petting Zoos

Animals used in traveling zoos are subjected to the stresses of transport, strange and frightening environments, irregular feeding and watering, mishandling, and extensive public contact. The sheer logistics of getting from one venue to the next does not allow for much downtime to let animals rest or exercise or to enable caretakers to attend to sick or injured animals. It’s impossible to know how many animals suffer and die en route, because zoo caravans are constantly on the move, and for the most part, no one is watching. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) oversees animal displays, but with just over 100 officers responsible for inspecting more than 8,600 licensees, it’s impossible for the USDA to monitor all exhibitors adequately.

Forced to interact with crowds of people all day long, animals used in petting zoos may not get enough food, water, and rest. Some snap. Many children and adults have been seriously injured by tigers, primates, and other animals who are used as props in photo shoots.

Petting zoos are hotbeds of E. coli bacteria, and numerous children have been infected with the potentially deadly bug after visiting such displays. Infections can spread through direct animal contact or mere touching of the surroundings near an animal exhibit.

Roadside zoos and backyard menageries often involve small-scale operations where animals are kept in ramshackle concrete and chain-link cages. Most don’t even have a blade of grass, much less any meaningful enrichment. Animals are often deprived of adequate food, water, shelter, and veterinary care.

What You Can Do

Don’t pass a few hours at a place where animals will languish in misery long after you’ve gone home. Please don’t buy a ticket. Instead, explain to your children why your family does not support cruelty to animals.

People can support rescue operations affiliated with the Global Federation of Animal Sanctuaries (GFAS). GFAS is an organization that upholds rigorous standards of sanctuary management and animal care. Member sanctuaries don’t breed or use animals in commercial activities, and they provide excellent lifetime care.